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Blue Bloods Is a 'Ratings Success Story' for CBS

The Reagan family--Blue Bloods, all of them.
I love this show--and I found an interesting interview with the show's creators on Jim Halterman's website.

Halterman, a freelance writer who focuses on the entertainment world, interviewed executive producers Robin Green (who created the series with husband Mitchell Burgess) and TV vet Leonard Goldberg on Blue Bloods last month:

Just when it seemed that there couldn’t possibly be room for another successful crime drama on the CBS prime time schedule, freshman series Blue Bloods premiered on low-rated Friday night last fall and viewers showed up. In fact, a recent tryout on Wednesday nights proved successful and while the series is now back on Fridays (to make room for “Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior”), a mid-week return isn’t out of the realm of possibilities down the line.

In the New York City-based one-hour drama, the lives of the Reagan family are intertwined while working in various areas of law enforcement – Danny (Donnie Wahlberg) is a detective, sister Erin (Bridget Moynahan) is an Assistant District Attorney, youngest brother Jamie (Will Estes) is a rookie police officer and father Frank (the always sturdy Tom Selleck) is the widowed Police Commissioner. That crime-fighting set-up aside, executive producers Robin Green (who created the series with husband Mitchell Burgess) and TV vet Leonard Goldberg insisted Blue Bloods is more character than procedural when they spoke recently to me. During their chat, Green and Goldberg talked about finding the middle ground between character and procedural, casting Selleck and if viewers can expect the show to get a little sexier in the future.


Jim Halterman: There’s seems to be something very traditional about ‘Blue Bloods.’ Is it wrong to call it a traditional drama?

Leonard Goldberg: Absolutely not! When I told Nina [Tassler, CBS Entertainment President] the very basic idea a year and a half ago. I said, ‘Do you know the show ‘Modern Family?’ and she said ‘Yes!’ I said, ‘This isn’t it! It’s a traditional family.’

JH: What are the challenges in making this a character drama as opposed to a full-on procedural like many of the CBS crime dramas on the air?

LG: We consider ourselves a character drama. We are not a pure procedural. We have a police story every…CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE

Comments

  1. A reference was made to the Brooklyn Bridge towers in a recent episode of Blue Bloods. In the interest of accuracy the Brooklyn Bridge Towers and Anchorages were comprised of granite and not limestone as that reference would have the viewer believe. The granite used in the construction of the towers and anchorages was quarried from the Herricks quarries located in Brooksville/Herricks 50 miles South of Bangor, Maine on the Blue Hill Peninsula. (This information was obtained from the Oakland House Seaside Resort web site.)

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